LESA boss shocks LDA, board!

HAVING DRAWN flak for deaths caused by electrocution for no fault of its own, the Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) has shot off a missive to the LDA and UP Housing and Development Board holding them responsible for such incidents.

Drawing attention of the development agencies towards the mishaps, LESA Chief General Manager AK Singh has said his department had been unnecessarily blamed in this context despite the fact that the former had developed the colonies in question. People have organised demonstrations and resorted to road blockades every time such an accident takes place. And the LESA always finds itself at the receiving end of such protests.

“I am attaching copies of the recent reports in the media relating particularly to the Rajajipuram locality. As you are aware, this colony was neither developed by us nor did we undertake any electrification work in the region,” points out the communiqué addressed to the Housing Board bosses.

As such, it is your responsibility to take steps you deem fit to ensure that such accidents do not reoccur, said Singh. According to an estimate, around 30 per cent residents in Rajajipuram locality have made illegal constructions and extended their boundary walls in a manner that have brought the roadside electricity poles dangerously close to their houses.

Similar instances abound in the Jankipuram housing colony developed by the LDA on Sitapur Road. An LDA officer explained the prevailing incongruity thus: “A large number of the area over which these power lines have been drawn comprised green belt when the colony was planned. But since property prices shot up, this land became valuable following which unscrupulous elements in the LDA in connivance with the land sharks changed the land use from green to residential.”

The LESA official, to make his point, has attached photographs showing high-tension power lines almost touching the balcony and electricity poles inside the lawn of a house published in various sections of the media with the letter. A copy of the letter has also been forwarded to the district magistrate apprising him about the facts.

“We have asked both the organisations to get the encroachments removed and at the same time informed the administration that we will not be responsible any lapse in the matter,” said Singh.